AFRICAAM 31:RealTalk: Intimate Discussions about the African Diaspora

Students to engage in an intellectual discussion about the African Diaspora with leading faculty at Stanford across departments including Education, Linguistics, Sociology, History, Political Science, English, and Theater & Performance Studies. Several lunches with guest speakers. This course will meet in the Program for African & African American Studies Office in Building 360 Room 362B (Main Quad). This course is limited to Freshman and Sophomore enrollment.

AFRICAAM 43:Introduction to English III: Introduction to African American Literature (AMSTUD 12A, ENGLISH 12A)

(Formerly
English 43/143). In his bold study,
What Was African American Literature?, Kenneth Warren defines African American literature as a late nineteenth- to mid-twentieth-century response to the nation's Jim Crow segregated order. But in the aftermath of the Jim Crow era and the Civil Rights movement, can critics still speak, coherently, of "African American literature"? And how does this political conception of African American literary production compare with accounts grounded in black language and culture? Taking up Warren's intervention, this course will explore African American literature from its earliest manifestations in the spirituals and slave narratives to texts composed at the height of desegregation and decolonization struggles at mid-century and beyond.

AFRICAAM 48Q:South Africa: Contested Transitions (HISTORY 48Q)

Preference to sophomores. The inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president in May 1994 marked the end of an era and a way of life for South Africa. The changes have been dramatic, yet the legacies of racism and inequality persist. Focus: overlapping and sharply contested transitions. Who advocates and opposes change? Why? What are their historical and social roots and strategies? How do people reconstruct their society? Historical and current sources, including films, novels, and the Internet.

AFRICAAM 50B:Nineteenth Century America (CSRE 50S, HISTORY 50B)

(Same as
HISTORY 150B. History majors and others taking 5 units, register in 150B.) Territorial expansion, social change, and economic transformation. The causes and consequences of the Civil War. Topics include: urbanization and the market revolution; slavery and the Old South; sectional conflict; successes and failures of Reconstruction; and late 19th-century society and culture.

(
History 55F is 3 units;
History 155F is 5 units.)This course explores the causes, course, and consequences of the American Civil War. The Civil War profoundly impacted American life at national, sectional, and constitutional levels, and radically challenged categories of race and citizenship. Topics covered include: the crisis of union and disunion in an expanding republic; slavery, race, and emancipation as national problems and personal experiences; the horrors of total war for individuals and society; and the challenges--social and political--of Reconstruction.

Foreign aid can help Africa, say the advocates. Certainly not, say the critics. Is foreign aid a solution? or a problem? Should there be more aid, less aid, or none at all? Africa has developed imaginative and innovative approaches in many sectors. At the same time, many African countries have become increasingly dependent on foreign aid. How do foreign aid and local initiatives intersect? We will examine several contentious issues in contemporary Africa, exploring roots, contested analyses, and proposed solutions, examining foreign aid and the aid relationship. As African communities and countries work to shape their future, what are the foreign roles, and what are their consequences?

This course introduces students to the theoretical and analytical frameworks necessary to critically understand constructions of race, gender, and sexuality in contemporary American film. Through a sustained engagement with a range of independent and Hollywood films produced since the 1990s, students analyze the ways that cinematic representations have both reflected and constructed dominant notions of race, gender, and sexuality in the United States. Utilizing an intersectional framework that sees race, gender, and sexuality as always defined by one another, the course examines the ways that dominant notions of difference have been maintained and contested through film in the United States. Films to be discussed include Better Luck Tomorrow, La La Land, Mosquita y Mari, Get Out, and Moonlight.nTO BE ADDED TO THE WAITLIST: Please email williamgow@stanford.edu

Examines health disparities in the U.S., looking at the patterns of those disparities and their root causes. Explores the intersection of lower social class and ethnic minority status in affecting health status and access to health care. Compares social and biological conceptualizations of race and ethnicity. Upper division course with preference given to upperclassmen.